Increasing the productivity of your existing staff is one of the quickest and least costly ways to enable business growth. Managers, particularly less experienced ones, often rule out increasing productivity of existing staff, as it can conjure up images of conflict. It doesn’t have to be like that, and below are a my five top tips to increase the productivity of your existing staff, without the conflict.
1. Start the day with a morning briefing
“Oh no!”, you may think, “he’s gone insane if he’s suggesting daily meetings!”. It’s not quite that bad. What I mean is that every morning, you have a strictly five minute “whip ’round”. A quick discussion of what worked the previous day, and what needs changing. Effective chairing is necessary, and I encourage these meetings to be held standing. Each member of the team gets a ch ance to talk, but only if adding value. Remember the time limit, it’s important.
2. Ensure an Excellent Reward System
I don’t mean money. An excellent reward system includes that, plus many other facets. Consider four main areas, base pay, at risk pay, employee benefits, and non-financial rewards. One of the most important aspects is equity. Your staff need to be rewarded for the way they perform in an objective manner, not based on a subjective view of them or their personal traits. If your reward system works, to a large extent productivity manages itself.
3. Avoid “Shotgun” Emails
In today’s world of email, iPads and twitter, it’s incredibly easy to send an email to a great number of people in a small time. You’ve probably done it. Be careful who you send email to, make sure you’re targeting only those who actually need it. This saves everybody else the time.
4. Prepare for Staff Leave
At some stage everybody’s been caught with a staff member on leave who had critical information or knowledge. Waiting for a staff member to return from leave wastes valuable time and money. Therefore it’s important to sit down with staff a few weeks before their scheduled leave, and discuss anything that may come up while they’re away. This isn’t foolproof, of course, but it’s about preparing for what you know is going to happen.
5. Provide the Correct Tools
The say a poor workman blames his tools. I happen to think a workman with poor tools blames his manager. The difference having the correct tools makes to productivity can be huge. This doesn’t just apply to hand or power type tools, either. It applies to any tool of the trade – computers, programs, paper based toolkits, whatever your staff need to do it well. Muddling through with substandard equipment is bound to end in poor productivity.
Do you have your own tips for increasing staff productivity? If so, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to leave your comments below.
Check regularly the competition. They may have some brilliant ideas that can be developed, smaller prices, new products…